Paint Shop Pro :A rainbow gradient (v7)

Colour gradients can be very useful for creating titles or graphical interfaces. Paint Shop Pro's version 7 offers some very advanced gradient creation tools. Ideal, for example, for creating a beautiful rainbow.

Gradient Types
Gradient colours are handled by the Colours palette. If it isn't already displayed, select View > Toolbars and check the Colour Palette box. Now let's take a look at what gradient types are available:

  1. Try clicking on the colour indicator's black arrow, near the word Styles in the Colour palette.

    This is the foreground colour indicator. A series of icons appear when you click on it.
  1. Click on the second icon from the left.

    Paint Shop Pro displays a default gradient. This consists of at least two colours: the one in the foreground colour indicator (source colour) and the one in the background colour indicator (target colour).
  2. Double-click inside the colour indicator.

    The Gradient dialog box appears.

Paint Shop Pro proposes a number of styles for creating your gradient. You can see them on the right-hand side of the dialog box. They are used to define the gradient form to be applied:

  • Linear. The colours follow one another in strips. The angle can be adjusted.
  • Rectangular. The colours follow one another starting from the centre, in strips that run parallel to the edges of the image. A horizontal and vertical shift away from the centre may be applied, up to the edge of the image.
  • Sunburst. The colours follow one another in concentric circles from the centre outwards. A shift away from the centre may be applied.
  • Radial. The colours are applied from one side of a ray to the other. This ray can be angled. A shift away from the centre may be applied.

Creating the Rainbow
You now know where gradients are handled in Paint Shop Pro and what different types exist. It is time to pass on to the serious stuff and start to create our rainbow. The first step is to create the general aspect of our gradient. We will deal with colours later.

  1. Click on the Edit button in the gradient dialog box.

    Paint Shop Pro displays the gradient editor.

  1. Click on the New button, then - in the small panel that appears - enter Rainbow. Click on OK.

    The existing gradient is replaced by a two-colour gradient. As our rainbow will have seven colours, we are going to have to create five extra steps in our gradient.
  2. Click five times just below the coloured bar in the Gradient area.

    You have just created five small markers (little squares topped with a triangle) that represent the different steps in your gradient. Don't worry too much about the evenness of their positioning, as we will deal with that a little later.
  3. Select the second marker from the left.

    The little triangle changes from white to black, thus showing that it has been selected.
  4. Enter a value of 16 in the Location field, to the right of the gradient.

    The marker positions itself at 16% of the bar length.

Tip

/ Too many steps. If you have placed an extra marker by mistake (which is quite easy to do), click on it and drag it far away. It will be deleted automatically.

This step consists of placing five central markers at regular intervals. Repeat points 4 and 5 for the other markers in your gradient with the following values: 33, 50, 67 and 84%.

Tip

/ Without touching the keyboard. Use your mouse to slide the markers to the right position if you don't feel like entering the figures with your keyboard.

We can deal with colours now that the markers are in the right places.

Setting the Colours
This is the most important step in the creation of our gradient. We have to apply a colour to each of the markers that we have defined. This is the only way to make a complete rainbow.

  1. Click on the first marker on the left to activate it.

    The little triangle changes from white to black, thus showing that the marker has been selected.
  2. Double-click on the colour indicator, to the left of the bar.

    The colour picker appears.

  1. In the Current color section, you can see a small arrow to the far right of the individual colour pickers. Use the Red, Green and Blue sliders to define the following colour: RGB = 128,0,255.

    This colour corresponds to the first colour of the rainbow: purple.

Note

/ Don't forget! The value 0 is always at the far left of the slider, the value 255 always at the far right.

Similarly, you will have to define the colours of the six other markers for your gradient. These colours are those of the rainbow, namely (in addition to the afore-mentioned purple) indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. To help you, here are the RGB codes for each of these colours:

Marker / Colour / Red / Green / Blue
1 / Purple / 128 / 0 / 255
2 / Indigo / 64 / 0 / 255
3 / Blue / 0 / 0 / 255
4 / Green / 0 / 255 / 0
5 / Yellow / 255 / 255 / 0
6 / Orange / 255 / 128 / 0
7 / Red / 255 / 0 / 0

When you have finished this, your rainbow gradient will be visible in the gradient editor dialog box.

Saving and Using the Effect
Your rainbow gradient is finished. All that remains now is to save it, so that you can use it wherever you want.
Click on the Export button and export the gradient with the name rainbow.grd. By default, Paint Shop Pro saves the file in the Gradients folder.

Later on, you will be able to use the gradient picker to select this gradient and apply it to the image of your choice. A gradient can be applied to a selection. So you will have to create your selection (a shape, text) and use the Flood Fill tool once you have set the gradient as the foreground colour. If you have not defined a selection, the gradient will cover the entire layer (that is to say, the entire image).

Tip

/ Share your creations. You can also send your Rainbow gradient file to any of your friends. To add the gradient to his/her library, the person receiving the file must place the file in Paint Shop Pro 7's Gradients folder, open the gradient editor and click on the Import button.